Tag: Season 1

Chernobyl is already one of the most fascinating and relevant disaster movies I can think of, and we’re only one episode into it’s five episode run. “1:23:45” does a great job of introducing us to the men and women that will be affected by the nuclear power plant’s explosion, sets up the political dysfunction that will impede the increasingly desperate and heroic attempts to contain the environmental catastrophe, and visually and audibly highlight the dangerous, hellish conditions the rescue workers and plant technicians were forced to confront. Is the Chernobyl disaster a uniquely Soviet phenomenon? Could something like this happen in the West? And what lessons about a pervasive culture of lying and misinformation can we apply to our lives today? We hash out these questions and much more.

In the past 6 weeks, we’ve learned more about Nicolas Cage than we ever thought we would, or ever really cared to. So for the final week of season 1 of Super Serious Film Fest we’ve decided to do a retrospective on the whole process. We talk about our favorite moments from Season of the Cage as well as the most interesting things we learned about the man himself, Nicolas Cage.

The final livewatch of the Season of the Cage is in the books and it’s, well… completely mediocre. Like the movie and starring actors it’s based on, there’s absolutely nothing worth seeing here. Ok, so maybe we spice it up a bit with a few jokes but can that really save a complete pancake of a movie?

We draw the Season of the Cage to a close with its namesake movie, Season of the Witch. Does a movie starring Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman, Claire Foy, and that guy who played Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire actually deserve a viewing? A.Ron and I certainly have an opinion.

Amazon Prime’s The Romanoffs arrives at the finish line in “The One That Holds Everything”. If you were hoping that this would be the one that really brings into focus Weiner’s thesis for The Romanoffs, you’re probably walking away disappointed. An ambitious story framing device that doesn’t quite work leads to a surprise ending that doesn’t feel earned, and we’re still left at the end of it all confused and asking “why?” What is so fascinating about the Romanovs and their lives of various levels of privledge and quiet desperation that justifies the time and expense that went into making this, or watching it? We don’t have great answers, but we’re relieved to see this particular line of Romanoffs brought to an end.

Have you ever seen Nicolas Cage make a phonecall while wearing plastic vampire teeth? Have you seen him shout and gesticulate his way through the entire alphabet? Have you seen him literally say “boo hoo” while crying? No? Then you certainly haven’t seen Vampire’s Kiss, which is in the running for “Cage-iest” movie of all time.

Watching an unhinged Nicolas Cage performance for the first time is an experience that simply can’t be matched. There were enormous expectations for Vampire’s Kiss, and I’m happy to say they were met. Sync up your copy of the movie with ours and join us on this magical journey.

We take a couple cracks at the Vampire’s Kiss rewrite; one serious, one not so much. Can we fix a movie that isn’t worth watching without its lead actor? If not, maybe we can further ruin the movie in search of the dark comedy within?

This, by our estimation, is the second best episode of Amazon Prime’s The Romanoffs, but unfortunately, that’s not saying much about “End of the Line”. It features fairly engaging material involving a couple desperate to have a child engaging in grey-market adoption shenanigans in Russia, and the man and woman in question are appealing and sympathetic as leads. The script also approaches “crackling” in places, as these potential parents begin to fight over how far they’re willing to go and what compromises they’re willing to accept for their child, as the adoption environment itself plays on their paranoia and prejudice. Unfortunately, all this is betrayed by what has become as much of a Romanoffs trademark as it’s nebulous connection to the titular theme; uninspired directing and editing.

Multiple viewings and hours of sober reflection have led us both to believe that Con Air is a bad movie. The plot is contrived, the accents are awful, and it’s perhaps the least “Cagey” performance in Cage’s entire career. And yet, maybe based on star-power alone, it remains a classic which simply must be watched.